Category Archives: Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Thousands witness ‘Teertodbhava’ at Talacauvery

Arts, Culture & Entertainment
Devotees trying to get a glimpse of the ‘Teertodbhava’ at the Talacauvery at 6.04 p.m. on Friday.
Devotees trying to get a glimpse of the ‘Teertodbhava’ at the Talacauvery at 6.04 p.m. on Friday.

Amidst a religiously surcharged atmosphere, relentless chanting of Vedic hymns by a group of priests and frenzy of devotees, the famous ‘Teertodbhava’, the annual spectacle, occurred at Talacauvery at 6.04 p.m. on Friday, at the foothills of the mighty Brahmagiri mountains in Kodagu. Thousands of people witnessed the event.

The holy water (teertha) sprang up from the tiny pond ‘Brahmakundike’ even as the priests started pouring out the ‘teertha’ on the devotees who jumped into the main pond to get the glimpse of the occurrence and collect it in containers. Wafting wind and passing mist across the mighty hills lent a special aura to the whole episode in which the devotees basked in the glory of reverence. Goddess Cauvery, the presiding deity of Kodavas, Kodagu in general, is said to emerge as holy spring during the occasion.

The occurrence will also signal the beginning of the month-long Cauvery jatra during which devotees throng the Triveni Sangama — confluence of Cauvery, Kannike and Sujyoti rivers — to take holy dips and offer puja at the Sri Bhagandeshwara temple complex. Later, they will proceed to Talacauvery.

As usual, men with tonsured heads jumped into the main pond to gather in front of the Brahmakundike minutes before the occurrence. The “prabhavali” at the sanctum sanctorum close to the Brahmakundike was bedecked with grand floral arrangements. Kodava men in uniform rendered traditional ‘dudikottpat’ (dudi is a small drum).

Kodagu district in-charge Minister K.J. George, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra, Irrigation Minister, M.B. Patil, and Madikeri MLA, M.P. Appachu Ranjan, were among those who attended the event.

Free food arrangements were made at the choultry near the shrine and other locations. Police had a tough time managing the surging crowd and steady flow of vehicles.

The stretch of road from Bhagamandala-Talacauvery was illuminated. Cultural programmes were organised at Talacauvery.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by K. Jeevan Chinnappa / Bangalore – October 17th, 2014

Thousands witness Cauvery Theerthodbhava

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Uncategorized

CauveryKF24oct2014

Talacauvery (Kodagu):

Thousands of devotees from Karnataka and neighbouring States thronged Talacauvery in the district, the birth place of River Cauvery yesterday to witness the annual Theerthodbhava.

On witnessing the holy water springing from the Brahma Kundike at 6.04 pm in the auspicious Meena Lagna, Thula Sankramana Muhurtham, the devotees went ecstatic shouting ‘Jai Kaverammna’ ‘Jai Jai Matha’, ‘Jai Jai Cauvery Matha’ etc., in praise of Goddess Cauvery, which reverberated along the Brahmagiri Hill range, as the priests collected the ‘theertha’ gushing out from the Kundike and sprinkled it over the crowds. Some devotees even jumped into the bathing pond breaking Police barricade.

The rituals at Talacauvery began after 4 pm, with the bringing of flowers and silver ornaments from Bhagandeshwara Temple at Bhagamandala, as per the tradition. A puja was offered to the Brahma Kundike by Talacauvery temple priests Narayana Achar, Prashanth Achar, Krishna Upadhyaya, Gopalakrishna Achar.

Devotees from across Karnataka and neighbouring States of Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, thronged Talacauvery in thousands from early morning.

The Maha puja and Mahamangalarathi took place at 5.50 pm ahead of the Theerthodbhava at 6.04 pm, which was 3 minutes earlier than the stipulated time of 6.07 pm.

The Kannada and Culture Department had organised bhajans and cultural events at Talacauvery. Kodava men in traditional attire, rendered the traditional ‘Dudikott pat.’

Mass feeding was arranged at the choultry near the shrine and other locations. The stretch of road from Bhagamandala to Talacauvery was illuminated. The KSRTC operated special buses from Mysore and Madikeri for the benefit of devotees. The Police had made tight security arrangements at Talacauvery, with the deployment of Home Guards, KSRP and DAR platoons.

Kodagu District in-charge Minister K.J. George, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra, Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil, Madikeri MLA M.P. Appachhu Ranjan and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

Govt. moots construction of overbridge at Bhagamandala

“The Government is planning to construct an overbridge at Bhagamandala, which loses contact with the outside world during the rainy season,” according to Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil.

Speaking to press persons here yesterday, the Minister said Kodagu District in-charge Minister K.J. George had appealed for construction of an overbridge, following which Chief Engineer Srinivas Murthy has been assigned the task of preparing a blue print for the project.

However, the project will be executed so that the sentiments of locals would not be hurt. Chief Engineer Srinivas Murthy will make a spot inspection and will discuss with the local people, following which the project will be finalised, Patil said.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Saturday, October 18th, 2014

Mangalore: All cultural associations merge in first ever press meet

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Mangalore :

The first ever joint press meet of Karnataka Tulu, Beary, Konkani, Kodava Sahitya academy and Karnataka Arebashe Sanskriti and Sahitya academy presidents was organized at Hotel Srinivas, here on Monday October 13.

All cultural associations came together and explained their mission and vision of preserving the culture and languages of the state collectively.

B A Mohammad Hanif president of Karnataka Beary Sahitya academy briefed the press regarding the activities of Sahitya academy and their importance in the present society. He said, “Karnataka government has established seven language academies and six cultural academies in the state. It is a prime responsibility of these academies to promote and save the culture and languages of the state. Tulu, Beary and Konkani Sahitya academies are centred in and around Mangalore and Kodava Sahitya academy and Karnataka Arebashe Sanskriti and Sahitya Academy are deep rooted in Madikeri”.

“District administration has included Tulu, Beary, Konkani, Karnataka Arebashe Sahitya academy in the decision making committee and asked our collaboration in Karavali Utsav which is indeed a very good news. We also request to district administration to include Kodava Sahitya academy in decision making committee?.

“We have planned to organize joint cultural Utsav and programmes in Madikeri, Sullia and Puttur regions in the coming days. Government of Karnataka has also asked our opinion in shortlisting the candidates for Rajyotsava awards, the second highest civilian honour award of the state”.

“We are also planning to have a joint ‘Convention 2015’ a cultural extravaganza next year in month of April or May in Mangalore. To mark unity and togetherness for the coming years of working together, we have organized the first ever joint press meet today”, he informed.

Roy Castelino, president of Karnataka Konkani Sahitya academy, said, “The government has allotted Rs 65 lac for Sahitya academy to organize cultural programmes. If the government raises the funds to Rs one crore, we can reach to all parts of Karnataka and effectively organize the programmes. We have also shortage of permanent staffs. We appoint many on temporary basis during the events. This is the reason why funds are not fully utilized”.

Janaki Brahmavar, president, Karnataka Tulu Sahitya academy, Biddathanda Thammaiah, president of Kodava Sahitya academy and Girish Kollya Karnataka Arebashe Sanskriti and Sahitya academy president and members of Karnataka Tulu, Beary, Konkani, Kodava Sahitya academy and members of Karnataka Arebashe Sanskriti and Sahitya academy were also present during the press meet.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Karnataka / DaijiWorld Media Network – Mangalore (CLP) / Mangalore – Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

Theerthodbhava at Talacauvery tomorrow

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Madikeri :

Talacauvery, the birth place of River Cauvery, is all set for the annual Theerthodbhava on Oct.17 with rituals and filling the ‘Akshaya Patra’ with grains taking place at Bhagamandala’s Bhagandeshwara temple on Tuesday.

The rituals took place in the presence of Sri Bhagandeshwara-Talacauvery Temple Committee members and others.

Temple Committee President Manu Muthappa, speaking on the occasion, said the Theerthodhbava will take place at 6.07 pm on Oct.17 in the auspicious Meena Lagna. The Kodagu district administration, the Temple Committee and other Associations involved are making hectic preparations for the all important event, he said.

As the Theerthodbhava is taking place in the evening and with mist engulfing the hilly area, street lights (1500 tubelights) are being erected along the Bhagamandala-Talacauvery road. Also, 33 CCTV cameras are being installed at Talacauvery at a cost of about Rs.12 lakh, he said and added that mass feeding will commence in the afternoon of Oct.17.

The Police Department has erected barricades at necessary points for crowd control and about 400 Policemen will be deployed at the spot.

Elaborate arrangements are being made for providing drinking water to the devotees. The Health and Family Welfare Department has deputed a team of doctors and an ambulance for any health emergencies.

LED screens are being installed for the devotees to witness the Theerthodbhava, he said and added that the Kannada and Culture Department has erected a platform for musical programmes.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home>General News / Thursday , October 16th, 2014

HC tells three men to pay maintenance to aged mother

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

Bangalore :

The High Court has upheld the order of a maintenance tribunal which had directed three sons of a 88-year-old woman to provide her a maintenence of Rs 3,000 each every month.

In an order which provides a ray of hope to people abandoned by their children, the High Court recently upheld the tribunal order, considering that she cannot earn her own living due to old age.

H S Subramanya, a native of Cherla Srimangala village of Chethalli, Somwarpet taluk in Kodagu district had moved the court, challenging the tribunal order directing him and his brothers H S Ganesh Kumar and H S Thimmappaiah, to pay maintenance to his mother H S Lakshmi, who is residing with her widowed daughter H S Mangala Gowri at Hosakeri village in Somwarpet taluk.

The trio had inherited their father H S Srinivasa’s property after he executed a will in their favour by dividing the property. Srinivasa, who died in June 21, 2002, had also stated in his will that each of his sons should pay a sum of Rs 500 each to their mother.

The sons abided by the will, paying her money till 2010. She moved the tribunal in Kodagu district and obtained an order in her favour. Subramanya and Kumar moved the High Court, stating that they stopped paying maintenence because their other brother has not paid any maintenence and also has taken their share from her.

Justice Abdul Nazeer upheld the verdict of the tribunal and asked the sons to pay maintenence. He observed, “Ageing has become a major social challenge because of the decline of the joint family system. A large number of elderly persons, particularly widowed women, are not being looked after by their families. They are forced to spend their twilight years alone, are exposed to emotional neglect and are not provided financial support,” the court observed.

The Court, which dismissed the petition, said, “There is a need to pay more attention to the care and protection of older persons.”

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / Bangalore- DHNS, October 12th, 2014

Queen of cuisines

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Sports

Ranee Vijaya Kuttaiah talks about the intense relationship of her Kodava community with food, her quest for recipes across two States, and reveals secrets of the early years of food styling in India

Bursting with ideasRanee Kuttaiah has collected recipes from households of different communities in Karnataka / Photo: Bhagya Prakash k. / The Hindu
Bursting with ideasRanee Kuttaiah has collected recipes from households of different communities in Karnataka / Photo: Bhagya Prakash k. / The Hindu

Avid golfer. Kalakshetra student. Bharatanatyam and Kathakali dancer. Great grandmother. Lived the good life in the Nilgiris. Travelled the world giving performances. Anjaneya bhakt. Ford Motors PR in New York. Writer. Food stylist. Lecturer. Hotel manager. A very good cook.

Ranee Vijaya Kuttaiah is so many things rolled into one, it’s difficult to keep pace with this energetic Kodava matriarch as she flits from one story of her life to another. She can hold forth on anything from how politics is dirty to why prostitution should be legalised. And from how to boil lobster just so, to how to make ice cream that won’t melt under bright lights. All this coming from a woman who, when she got married, didn’t know how to make a cup of tea.

“I used to write for The Hindu when I lived in the Nilgiris with my husband. I’m a Kalakshetra dancer. My husband died when he was young. I was just too heart broken and swore never to wear my anklets and dance again. I started writing short stories, started a company called Shadow Light Co-ordinators and we would do high-end food and fashion shoots in Bangalore,” says Ranee, of the beginnings of how she came to write about food.

ITC Windsor and Sterling Paperbacks re-launched a revised edition of her famous recipe book, Cuisine from Karnataka with her other classic Cuisine from Coorg this week at an evening that saw the who’s who of Coorg and Ranee’s friends bond over food and wine. Talking of the strong bond that her Kodava community has with food, she points out: “We worship our ancestors with liquor! On any occasion, we first offer a little bit of whatever we cook in front of the photos of our ancestors. We are a kshatriya race used to good food, and we are big agriculturists.”

While studying for her masters in the United States in the 1960s, during her summer break she chanced upon a food styling course in one of the hotels. She signed up for it and a whole unknown world was revealed to her. “Cooked food doesn’t style well. It creates a mess. Food is best shot uncooked. I’ll tell you a secret. You can’t photograph steam. So when I had to shoot a hot, steaming kettle, I would blow out smoke from a cigarette just in time for the photographer to shoot. Mind you I don’t smoke. Ice-cream melts under lights. So we would whip paint and freeze it to look like ice cream! I would par-boil lobsters and then paint them with lovely orange oil paints before setting it up on a silver platter.” When she styled food for the famous Sangeeta Khanna cookbook, her present publisher appreciatively ate a meal in her house and asked her to write a book on Coorg cuisine. Ranee turned to her mother for the classic recipes of Coorg. It’s a book that’s been going into reprint for the last 14 years.

One book led to another. Having lived 30 years in Tamil Nadu and having performed all over the State, she recalls taking down recipes whenever she travelled in Madurai, Ramnad, Thirunelveli and Thanjavur, recording recipes of Nadar and Thevar cuisine, which featured in her book Cuisine from Tamil Nadu. Her own personal favourite, though, is Syrian Christian non-vegetarian food from Kerala, she pipes in.

She decided to write about Karnataka cuisine because — “it’s my State and largely ignored” she says, with a mix of pride and hurt. “It’s was as if holige and bisi bele bhath were the only things Karnataka had to offer,” she says talking of the limited popularity of food from the state then. She had close friends in political circles like Ramakrishna Hegde. “Many of the ministers were Lingayats and Gowdas. I would travel to Mandya and Maddur, visit the homes of the Gram Panchayat chiefs and ask their wives what they cook at home. I would collect four to five recipes from different families of the same dish, come home and try them in my kitchen and arrive at what I thought was the best of them.” Her book on Karnataka covers food from the Lingayat, Gowda, Bunt, and Madhwa Brahmin community (into which her sister was married).

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Bhumika. K / October 17th, 2014

Dasara jumbos return to their forest abode

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature

Mysore :

After spending days together in the royal city, it was time for the Dasara jumbos to bid farewell to each other and return to their abode in the forests. Of the 14 elephants camping in the city, 11 left on Tuesday while three jumbos, Gajendra, Srirama and Durgaparameshwari, will head to their habitat in K Gudi in Chamarajnagar district on Wednesday.

Before they bid adieu to city life, they got a traditional farewell at the Mysore Palace from bureaucrats and politicians led by district minister V Srinivas Prasad. The herd led by howdah elephant Arjuna started their journey at 3pm as they were loaded on to trucks. Their mahouts, kavadis and family members too accompanied the jumbos in the trucks. By 6pm, Arjuna had reached Nagarahole national park.

Veteran Abhimanyu too has returned to the forest. “He is healthy and doing well. That is why we chose to send him back along with the 10 other jumbos,” vet D N Nagaraj told TOI denying that the 48-year-old tusker was injured. Abhimanyu has been part of Dasara festivities for 15 years now and is traditionally assigned the job of pulling the musical chariot, known as Aane Gaadi.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mysore / by H.M. Aravind, TNN / October 08th, 2014

Mysore girl in “Pyate Hudigiru Halli Lifeu Season – 3”

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg

SomaiahKF14oct2014
Mysore :

After three Kodava celebrities — Shwetha Chengappa, Deepika Kamaiah and Harshika Poonacha — participated in the just concluded TV Reality Show Bigg Boss Kannada Season-2, here is another Kodavathi from Mysore — Cheeyakapoovanda Ravika Somaiah — taking part in another Reality Show on the television, Pyate Hudigiru Halli Lifeu – Season 3, which got off to a grand start on Oct. 6, after the grand finale of Bigg Boss.

She is one among the 10 contestants participating in Pyate Hudigiru Halli Lifeu, a happening reality show on Suvarna Channel everyday at 8 pm.

Ravika Somaiah has been a top model for Needle Works under Jayanthi Ballal for the last two years.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / October 08th, 2014

Rustic vignettes

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Science & Technology

Spot on in bringing characters alive.

A Town Like Ours; Kavery Nambisan, Aleph, Rs.395
A Town Like Ours; Kavery Nambisan, Aleph, Rs.395

In literature that delves into social miseries, there is a common feeling that those who have words don’t have the stories, and those who have stories don’t have the words. If you’re living on the pavement with your family, you probably don’t have the means to record the experience for posterity. On the other hand, if you sit at a desk of your own and compose literature, you don’t have access to the miseries you want to write about.

To reconcile that problem, writers set up a peculiar kind of narrator, the person steeped in the rough life who somehow has the vocabulary and wider perspective to tell the stories. It is the kind of construct we find in old fiction, like Nelly Dean from Wuthering Heights or the flamboyantly criminal Moll Flanders. Nowadays, it seems an unnecessarily elaborate way to get to the stories. Readers are primed to accept them without that explanatory frame.

In Kavery Nambisan’s A Town Like Ours, the peculiar narrator is Rajakumari, a retired prostitute who lives in a dark room somewhere in the temple of the village goddess. She knows everyone’s back story and is not ashamed to tell it all. In her early years, she was enterprising enough to trade sex for lessons in maths, language, anatomy and other subjects. With education comes some preachiness, but we are Indians and that’s how we spin a fiction. Rajakumari has plenty to say about the chief industry of the town, the way it has poisoned the wells, contaminated the soil and whitened the children’s hair. She opines on religion and knee joints. But mostly she studies human nature. Old acquaintances come to visit, women come to confide their sorrows, and young boys help her walk to the sanctum of the goddess. Through her tiny window, she reads the faces and gestures she sees on the basis of the many souls she has entertained in her working life, and she puts it all together.

At the centre of her stories is the family that lives out of an Ambassador taxi. Father drives it during the day, mother runs a tea-and-bajji stall out of the trunk after she comes home from her housecleaning jobs, the sister and brother go to school and spend the rest of their time on the streets. But there are in fact no brothers, sisters or fathers in the case. Saroja and Sampathu, each escaping a frightening past, have simply joined forces and are bringing up two children together. In spite of strong affections, the family is a fragile composite that holds together for some time and then fragments again. One child goes missing and then the other, and suddenly Sampathu is not to be seen.

Elsewhere in the town, Manohar and Kripa separate after a fight and come together again. This couple become enmeshed with Saroja and help to look for her family. Nambisan is spot on in drawing Saroja’s situation as the woman left behind. She cannot tell her neighbours she doesn’t know where the other three are. Every day she parries questions about when her husband is “coming back from the village”. She must keep up appearances, or she will be judged and found wanting.

Up to that point Nambisan’s novel is leisurely. We move back and forth through memories and conversations to find out what kind of person each character is. But the suddenly precipitous pace near the end throws us, as each member of the family comes wandering back and misunderstandings flower among them. The whore in the temple says a prayer for herself, and leaves us with unfinished stories.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Literary Review / by Latha Anantharaman / October 04th, 2014

‘Ancient War Trench Not Public Property’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

Bangalore :

The High Court has refused to allow public access to the Kadanga, an ancient war trench, which is part of a private property.

A petition was filed by Iynanda K Chinnappa of Yadoor village in Kodagu district claiming exclusive right over the trench, located adjacent to the land he owns.

It is said one Balachanda Thammaiah, a villager, had appealed against Chinnappa and his sons for obstructing free passage through the trench. Thammaiah claimed that the trench belonged to the government due to its ancient origin.

The revenue officials and the Assistant Commissioner dismissed Thammaiah’s application stating that the trench is now private property. The district court, however, ordered for removal of the obstacles. Challenging the said order, Chinnappa moved the High Court.

Hearing the appeal, Justice Anand Byrareddy said the Kadanga is not public property and that over time, it has merged with the land of the petitioners and been in the exclusive possession of the petitioners for more than 50 years.

He also observed that under the Coorg Land Revenue Regulations, the Karnataka Revenue Survey Manual and the Mysore Land Revenue Code, do not define Kadanga in proper terms. Since there is no practical use of these trenches today, the government has not thought it fit to exercise any exclusive right over it, said the judge. The High Court set aside the order of the district court and said the Kadanga was not meant for public use.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bangalore / by Express News Service / October 05th, 2014